


Pro Domo

by Icka M Chif (mischif)



Series: Carpe Aestatem (Seize the Summer) [5]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Comedy, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-28
Updated: 2012-07-02
Packaged: 2017-11-09 01:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/449787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mischif/pseuds/Icka%20M%20Chif
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pro Domo - '<i>For One's House or Home</i>'.</p><p>Flash Forward Six Months, Isabella can't believe the news. "Did you and Ferb really get kicked out of college?!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum

**Author's Note:**

> Two of the college activities are courtesy of '[Texts from Last Night](http://textsfromlastnight.com/)'. The other is from [this comic](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0libqFeqd1r4p0npo1_500.png).

**Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.**  
_Let Him Who Desires Peace Prepare for War_  
-[Vegetius](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Flavius_Vegetius_Renatus) (390 AD)

* * *

"Did you and Ferb really get kicked out of college?" Isabella asked as soon as Phineas picked up the phone. "I mean... you guys? You didn't blow anything up that you didn't mean to, did you?"

Phineas groaned in response. "Hi, Isabella." He mumbled. "And yes we did to the first, and no to the second. We did not blow anything up we did not mean to. We haven't done that in years." He made it sound like some sort of embarrassing biological function.

"Wow." She glanced at her calendar. "And it hasn't even been a month."

"Tell me about it." Phineas groused. There was a soft thud, like he had just fallen backwards on to a bed. Isabella smiled softly, wishing that she had chosen a school slightly closer to Danville, so she wouldn't get this sort of information second-hand. It was strange, not being right there for the action after all these years.

Still, it had been her choice to move out of the city, even if it was less than a hour's drive away. Phineas was still her friend, but she'd needed some space and wanted a fresh start after their 'break-up'.

"So what happened?" Isabella inquired, leaning back in her computer chair. She was supposed to be working on an essay, but this was more important. And interesting.

"We got expelled by the Dean for not showing our work." Phineas grumbled. "I mean, he was happy with the end result, but he wanted us to show him how we broke the rules of physics."

"Maybe you should start from the beginning?" Isabella offered. "I don't even know the backstory."

"Backstory. Right." There was something slightly mocking in Phineas' tone, but it disappeared a moment later. "So Ferb and I enrolled in Danville College, right? With an emphasis on Science and Engineering. But the Science building was kind of old and falling apart, Ferb ended up with particle board from the ceiling falling into a test-tube at one point, and so we offered to build them a new one since it wasn't in the school budget."

"Let me guess, sports being much more important." Isabella said dryly. It was the same story almost everywhere, the Sciences taking a back burner to Physical Education, which could earn the colleges money at meets and games.

"You got it." Phineas sighed. "So we talked to people, found out what they were hoping for with a new Science Building, drew up some blueprints, put in a bid, got permission, got the permits, and pulled an all nighter to demolish the old building and rebuild the entire thing from scratch. Complete with fractal rooftop, mobius strip hallway system, an underground bunker for volatile reaction experiments, and a tornado slide to get down from the top floor."

Because most scientists liked explosions, and were still in tune with their inner child, poking and prodding the world in with geeky fascination.

"Let me guess, you let Ferb handle the space management." She said with a smile. "How much bigger was the inside from the outside?"

"Only twice." Phineas said dismissively. "We were trying to keep it simple."

Isabella bit her lower lip. To Phineas and Ferb, that _was_ simple. To everyone else, not so much. "And then what happened?"

"Well, there was the Grand Opening celebratory donuts for the teachers and students. They liked the new building and classes started. It wasn't until later in the afternoon the Dean showed up and saw the building that he got mad and demanded to see us. He wanted us to show him how we made it, which is where we ran into problems. We showed him the blueprints and everything, but couldn't explain to his satisfaction _how_ we built it."

Because the Flynn-Fletcher brothers weren't interested in _how_ they did the things they did, they were only interested in _doing_ them.

"And then he accused us of cheating, building it in one night to keep anyone else from learning how we did it." Phineas sighed. When in reality, they probably had done it late at night because the building was empty and it wouldn't interrupt classes. "He got so loud that people started coming out of the classes to protest. There was a lot of shouting, not a lot of it good."

"I'm sorry." Isabella said quietly. She sensed more than heard him shrug in return.

"Yeah, well, that's the point when a giant purple beam came out of the sky and zapped it. There was a trans-dimensional implosion and the building disappeared. Fortunately, no one was inside when it happened, but it meant that the entire night's work was gone. Everyone else thought it was the Dean's fault, the Dean said it was our fault, and then he threw us out of the school."

"You haven't had a project disappear like that in... what?" Isabella thought about it. After Candace got married, the big projects usually had to have some sort of removal plan built into it. Something about a combination of their sister and mother causing their projects to vanish. "Over a year now?" She finally ventured.

"Something like that." Phineas said dismissively. He didn't tend to dwell in the past, his eyes firmly looking forward to the next thing they could do, not previous accomplishments.

"He was probably mad because he was hoping to steal your work and make a fortune off of it." Isabella said.

"That's what Ferb figured too." Phineas agreed. There was a rustle of something moving across cloth. "Oh, there you are Perry."

Perry chittered in response, the platypus probably cuddling with Phineas for comfort.

"So what are you going to do now?" Isabella inquired. There was still the Danville University if they wanted to stay local. "It's probably going to be hard to find another school to accept you mid-term."

Phineas laughed. "Actually, that's not a problem at all. We've had about ten places contact us in the past few hours, trying to get us to go with them. A few of them have even offered to wave tution in exchange for building them a new Science facility."

Isabella giggled. At least they'd be alright. "Thinking of accepting any?"

"Two, actually." Phineas said, shifting on his bed. "Ferb's set on getting his PhD, and I'm willing to go along for the ride. A lot of school work is just proving that you've put in your time, but I want to get it done sooner than later. We'd already planned on doing the accelerated tracks, but we figured out a way to half that time."

In some ways, Isabella thought Phineas and Ferb were lucky. They already knew what they wanted to do, and figured out how they were going to go about it. Baljeet as well, but she and Buford were both taking the general classes right now, still trying to figure out where to go in life.

She wanted to help people, but past that, she wasn't sure. There were a lot of ways to do that, Peace Corp, Social Worker, but she didn't know what avenue she wanted to take yet.

"Which schools?" She asked, distracting herself from the usual mental conundrum.

"Edinburgh and California."

It was hard to get much farther apart than that. "Edinburgh, Scotland? And then California?" She questioned.

"No, both at the same time." Phineas said, like it was obvious.

Isabella had an odd mental image of Ferb going to one school, and Phineas the other, but that didn't seem likely. And Education wasn't a joint project, one couldn't take a class and the other get credit for it.

"Huh?"

"If we split ourselves in half, we can take half of the required classes at each school at the same time." Phineas explained in a rational tone, which meant that what he was saying was anything but. "It means we have to merge back together again every few days to share the memories or the backlash from processing that amount of data will have us out of commission for a few days, but we can get our Associates degree in one year instead of two. We're going to see how it goes before trying that with our Bachelor's."

"Probably not a good idea to do that while earning a Master's." Isabella said lightly.

"Yeah, that's what Ferb figured too." Phineas easily agreed, like he wasn't talking about splitting himself into two. Isabella had been out of their immediate orbit for just long enough that the idea of it made her head hurt where as once it would have been an easy acceptance.

They really did do the impossible. After almost a decade of crazy big ideas, for the most part, the people of Danville were accepting of it. No matter what they did, Phineas and Ferb always had fun and invited everyone to join in.

Outside of Danville, she could see it being a problem. They had just been expelled for building something to help people, that just happened to break the laws of physics. She was pretty sure that their being expelled was against the law, there hadn't been any due process or anything, but she didn't know.

But this was probably going to be come a problem in the future. The dissonance between what they could create and everyone else build was going to eventually create friction. The Flynn-Fletcher brothers made impossible possible, and there were going to be people who hated them for that. Or tried to take advantage of it, use them for their own purposes.

There had to be a way to protect Phineas and Ferb from that. Not exactly shield, but some sort of buffer, maybe. They loved people, but not everyone was going to love them in return.

And she couldn't stand by while they were hurt. Not if she could do something.

Small steps. Little steps, break down the problem into parts that she could fix.

"Anyway." Phineas said, clearly dismissing the entire thing. "Anything new going on with you?"

"Not really." She said, distracted by the problem at hand. "Same old, same old. Classes, study, food, sleep."

"Don't forget to have fun too." Phineas reminded her.

"Of course." Isabella agreed. "Just in the past week, I attended the Astronomy Club's Pre-Game Show to the Meteor Shower, went on a Five Story Slip and Slide some Engineering students made in a staircase, and watched some guy ran through the main quad wearing nothing but a sheet tied around his neck like a cape shouting 'For Science!'."

"What benefit does the cape serve whilst running naked?" Phineas asked, clearly confused. "It can't possibly improve the aerodynamics, was he testing the drag flow?"

And that right there, more than anything else, was why they were not dating. "I'm not sure." She said, injecting cheer into her tone. "But saying it was 'For Science' was apparently enough to keep him from being arrested by the campus police."

That, and it looked really cool.

"Well, alright then." Phineas accepted it. There was a muffled sound on the other end and Phineas shifted. "Oh, Ferb's home."

"I'll let you go then, Phineas." She smiled. "Talk to you later!"

"Yup. Later, Izzie! Take care!" The line went dead in her ear, Phineas' attention already gone.

Isabella sighed, a touch of old hurt creeping in before she dismissed it. Phineas treated her the same as he always had, a close friend, nearly a sister, and she couldn't do any less.

She leaned forward, tapping her pencil against the desk, mulling over the problem of their expulsion.

What the boys needed was someone to handle that, act like a buffer between their brilliance and the drag of everyday life. To handle the legal end of things. She had no doubt that they could handle the legal aspect on the technical stuff, they'd been handling permits and patents for years, but things like this weren't technical, they were emotional, personal. Phineas' giving nature had no reference for something so petty.

Isabella mulled it over for a moment, then flipped through her contacts list, finding Candace's number and pressing 'call'. She grabbed her laptop and opened up a browser window, typing in a search inquiry as she the phone rang.

"Hey, Candace?" Isabella said as the phone line picked up on the second ring. "It's Isabella. You're a Lawyer, would you happen to have a few minutes to answer some questions about your profession?"

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a sec- **AMANDA! What is that in your mouth?!** " As Candace wrestled with her toddler, Isabella looked over her search hit results with a critical eye, a plan already forming.

She wondered how long you had to study before you could take the Bar Exam to become a Lawyer.

-fin-


	2. Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fridays were both the worst and best parts of the week.

**Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae**  
 _There is no one great ability without a mixture of madness_

* * *

“Murmph.” Phineas groaned, the physical world creeping back to into his awareness. Friday nights were both the best and worst part of the week, joining their split selves back together again and dealing with the headaches.

It didn’t help that Edinburgh was eight hours ahead of Los Angeles, and neither of those cities were in the same zone as Danville. Phineas made a mental note to talk to Ferb about working on some calculations for a time displacement device so they didn't have to juggle time zones nearly as much. Most of the physical ache was from half his body thinking they were hours ahead while the other half thought he was hours behind.

Ferb tightened his grip on Phineas’ hands, Phineas butting his brother in the jaw with the top of his head like a cat. They were curled up on their sides, facing each other in Ferb’s bed, fingers twined in a white knuckle grip on each other’s hands.

The first time they’d rejoined, they’d each been in their own bed. That had been an experiment that had not been repeated. Having each other nearby helped ground them, gave them a physical sensation to hold onto while their minds sorted through two sets of memories.

Ferb had already made a schedule for next semester, juggling both sets of classes around so they’d only have to split for three days of the week, reducing the backlash. But that wasn’t for another few months, in the meantime, they dealt with being practically comatose for an hour or more each week while their brains processed.

It didn’t affect Ferb quite the same way as it did him. Ferb had tried to explain it one time, the theory or the process of building a ‘Mind Palace’, and while Phineas got some of the theory, he wasn’t so good at the practicality of it. To Ferb, Edinburgh memories went in the East Wing and Los Angeles memories went in the West Wing, the two existing concurrently without intersecting.

Phineas’ memory didn’t quite work like that, he was more of a free-form, Non-Linear Thinker, so it was all a confused jumble for the next few hours.

Ferb shifted, pressing his forehead against Phineas’, a silent inquiry to how he was doing. “I’m here.” He mumbled, his brain sluggishly rebooting. He’d be fine after a night’s sleep, but he wasn’t tired just yet, torn between conflicting urges of bed time and dinner time.

Dinner time won, they required more calories to deal with the energy loss of splitting and rejoining. Fortunately, Perry had their backs, there were two large pizzas with the works waiting below for them in the living room area. Internet ordering and a platypus with the know-how and access to their debit card was a wonderful thing.

Although he only did it when they weren’t watching. Phineas had caught Perry walking around on two legs a few time out of the corner of his his eye, but the rest of the time Perry stayed on all fours, pretending to be dim-witted. He almost would have thought it was a trick of his currently fractured memory, if it wasn’t for the occasional sticky-notes with reminders of meetings or that they were low on various foodstuffs.

It seemed to make Perry happy, so they just rolled with it.

Ferb squeezed Phineas’ hand, then let it go, resting it on the side of Phineas’ forehead, as if checking for a fever. Ferb’s warm fingers felt good and he leaned into the touch, Ferb obligingly rubbing small circles against his temple, easing the ache in his head.

“As always Ferb, you are a miracle worker.” Phineas sighed contently, his body relaxing and uncurling as the pain receded.

Ferb gave a slightly amused huff. “Paracetamol and water are next to the bed.” Ferb reminded him gently. “Food will help too.”

Which meant moving, and he didn’t want to. Ferb made another amused sound, but kept massaging Phineas’ scalp. He’d only do it for so long, Phineas knew. Once Ferb’s memories settled, he was always hungry. And he was right, painkillers, as much as he hated taking them, and food would help.

“Alright.” He muttered when he sensed Ferb getting impatient. “Alright, I’m up.”

Ferb chuckled quietly, releasing Phineas and rolling away. The bedroom loft was nearly the same set up as their bedroom at their parent’s home was, Phineas on the left, Ferb on the right. It made things easier when getting up half-awake in the middle of the night.

His brother waited as Phineas grudgingly sat up found the painkillers right where Ferb had said, waiting for him. He took the two white pills and drank the entire glass of water before wobbly getting to his feet. Ferb was slightly steadier, but he also held on to the stair rail down to the level below, their living-slash-kitchen room that overlooked the rest of the warehouse.

The pizzas were waiting on the low table in front of the sofa, next to a pair of DVDs. Phineas glanced at them as Ferb made his way to the refrigerator to get them both juice. “Space Adventure IV or Stumbleberry Finkbat and the Lost Shadow of Darkling Tower?” He asked. Watching an old familiar movie helped them unwind at the end of a long week.

Ferb flipped a coin in the air, then caught it. He gave Phineas an elvish salute. “Stumbleberry it is.” Phineas nodded, putting the disk in the player and starting it.

They sat down on the sofa, Phineas passing Ferb a pizza box as Ferb handed him a large glass of juice. Phineas drained half the glass before setting it down, tearing into the pizza. He didn’t have to worry about missing anything, they’d seen both series so many times that they could quote every scene out of any Stumbleberry Finkbat or Space Adventure movie.

Ferb practically inhaled the pizza he was holding, leaning back against the couch with a satisfied sigh. Phineas wasn’t quite as hungry, leaving one slice left in the box before finishing his juice and leaning against Ferb’s side. It wasn’t terribly cold yet, but Ferb pulled the blanket off the back of the couch, tucking it around both of them. Ferb had the body temperature of a furnace, but Phineas got chilled easily if he wasn't moving around.

And it was nice, being wrapped up in the soft material together. He could feel his headache recede, replaced with a sleepy contentedness. It was really the only time of the week the two of them could just sit and _be_.

The close contact was nice too. Casual affection was something he hadn't anticipated missing when they moved out. At home, Dad put his hand on their shoulders when they talked, Mom patted their heads or shoulders in passing, and there were hugs for good night, thanks, or just because they felt like it. Visiting Candace meant more hugs and playing with a cuddly and laughing toddler.

Hanging out with friends, there was rough-housing, back slaps, hand holding, noogies, using each other as pillows or walls, just casual constant happy casual contact. And while they were all still friends, they were now friends in different locations, and it was hard to hug someone through the phone. 

It was just the three of them in a large warehouse, it got kind of echoing in here. Lonely. If they didn't make a point of it, they could go days without even brushing past each other. Ferb didn't have any problems with Phineas using him as furniture, either climbing or leaning on him, Ferb's more reserved nature meant he didn't usually think to instigate it. But whenever Ferb did start to feel isolated, he usually just kind of gravitated toward where ever Phineas was, and Phineas would automatically lean against him, or reach out and make contact. Perry did the same thing, randomly appearing to be pet or held for a few minutes before disappearing again. 

Speaking of Perry, Phineas noticed some background noise. Ferb did as well, using his height to peer over the sofa back before relaxing with a small smiling. Perry moving around, doing his own thing. Phineas smelled the popcorn just before he found a bowl of it in his lap, Perry climbing up on the sofa on Ferb’s other side, as if he hadn’t just made popcorn and brought it over for all of them to share.

A quick glance at the pizza box showed the last piece gone, Perry having ninja’d it away, probably before he made the popcorn. “Thanks.” Phineas murmured softly, knowing that anything more would be ignored.

Perry chattered in response, burrowing under a fold of the blanket until only his head stuck out, leaning against Ferb’s thigh. Ferb smiled, scratching the top of Perry’s head with a finger before grabbing a handful of popcorn.

“That reminds me.” Phineas commented as giant sentient trees walked across the screen, a slightly fractured memory surfacing. “Clive Addison called me in Los Angeles." He'd been between classes in California and working on homework at the same time in Edinburgh. "Now that we're out of high school, he wanted to know if we were interested in collaborating in an interactive hologram for the premiere of a new series he’s working on, like we did for the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Convention a few years back.”

Ferb made an inquiring noise.

“I don’t know if that means we get to see a pre-screening of it or not.” Phineas extrapolated. “But we’ll probably get paid for it.”

They weren't hurting for funds just yet, but it couldn’t hurt to save for the future either.

Ferb thought it over, then shrugged, slouching down into the sofa. They’d work out the details later, right now was for relaxing and unwinding. Perry grunted, adding his vote to it.

Phineas laughed quietly, it turning into a yawn. He grabbed Ferb’s arm, wrapping it around himself so he could use Ferb’s shoulder as a pillow. Ferb made the best pillow for napping. He gave a happy sigh, shifting to get comfortable for the next hour and a half. 

Homework was done, the worst part of the week was over, Stumbleberry was discovering the Lost Shadow of Darkling Tower, and they had two days to play around and invent stuff to look forward to.

Friday nights were definitely the best and worst part of the week.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Building a Memory Palace (like Sherlock's!) ](http://theworldofjoeriggs.com/blog/?p=597)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> and [Linear vs Non-Linear Thinking](http://chuckslamp.com/index.php/2009/04/11/non-linearthinking/).
> 
> Ending scene inspired by [this picture](http://ferbfletch.tumblr.com/post/24116537012/i-need-more-of-this-pairing-and-the-only-way-for) by Ashley/FerbFletch on tumblr.


	3. Alces Alces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Candace is finally unconditionally in charge._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick little plunnie that hit last night after a 12 hour bus ride followed by working a full day at work. I'd blame sleep deprovation, except there's nothing to apologise for.

**Alces Alces**   
_The Latin or Scienfic name for 'Moose'_   


* * *

"Hey, Candace." Phineas' cheerful voice greeted her. "Congratulations. You're unconditionally in charge. A satellite just smashed through the warehouse roof, then a herd of moose ran through."

"HAH!" Candace shouted in triumph. "Hold on I sec, I have to call Mom!"

"'Kay."

She put him on hold and gleefully dialed Mom's number, giggling quietly to herself as she impatiently bounced up and down, placing the ringing phone to her ear. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon... MOM!"

"Candace?!"

"Guess what?!" Candace cheered. "I'm in charge! Officially! Unconditionally!"

"That's great, honey." Mom's voice was dry. "Of what?"

"Of Phineas and Ferb! A satellite fell out of orbit and crashed into the warehouse where they live, and then a herd of moose ran through!" She cackled. "Those were the two conditions you set down, that if they happened, I was in charge unconditionally! I CAN FINALLY BUST MY BROTHERS!"

"That's nice, dear." Mom had her skeptical voice on again. "... Except didn't your brothers already move out of the house and into their own place?"

Candace paused, the feeling of long awaited sweet sweet victory fleeing through her fingers.

"I'll talk to you later, Mom." She growled.

"Okay, sweetie." Mom said, striking the Mom tone of sounding both happy and concerned at the same time. "It is nice to hear from you, even if you are returning to teenage behaviours. I really thought you'd out grown this phase."

Candace sighed and hit the 'end call' button. The line with her little brother on it clicked over.

"Phineas?"

"Yeah, Candace?"

"That was a mean trick to play." She muttered sulkily.

"Who's playing?" Phineas demanded, confused and irritated at the same time. "Do you know how much of a mess a herd of stampeding moose leave behind?!"

-fin-


End file.
